[Aztlan] Maya movie

[Thomas Snizek]

Would this be it? 

LOS PERROS HAMBRIENTOS
(Hungry Dogs) 
Director: Luis Figueroa
1976. 98 minutes.
Setting: Puno (a region in the southern Altiplano), early 20th century
Language: Spanish

Based on the 1937 novel by Ciro Alegría (1909-1967), this film shows 
the lives of a Huarya family who work on the hacienda of Don Rómulo 
through times of plenty and times of drought. The film has a 
documentary-like style, with an anthropologist's attention to detail, 
showing the family working the fields, cooking and eating on the 
ground, scrubbing their beautiful home-made dishes with corn cobs, 
feeding their sheep and dogs, riding horses, singing and playing their 
folksongs, telling stories, or just wandering the countryside. There is 
a rather complicated plot involving military arrests, poisoned papayas, 
the stealing of dogs and sheep, and finally the ravages of the drought, 
but this is at its heart a slice-of-life film to be savored for its 
images, capturing a way of life far different from our own. Luis 
Figueroa also directed Kukuli and Yawar Fiesta. 

Tom Snizek
Collections Assistant
Arkansas Tech Museum
Russellville AR

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John Greer wrote:


>This is considerably off the subject, but I have been looking (for 
years) 
>for a similar movie called something like Los Perros Hambrientos. I saw 
it 
>in Lima about 1976, and it also was made by a Chilean director and film 
>crew, filmed in highland Peru using Quechua speakers, with dialog only 
in 
>Quechua (Spanish subtitles). The theme was social change (and religious 
>values) caused by starvation from a draught -- the theme, quality, 
>production, and all else sound almost identical to Dick's Tzeltal 
movie. I 
>would recommend it to everyone.
>
>If anyone can direct me to this movie-title, I would be grateful. I 
will 
>check Dick's suggestions for milestonefilms and netflix also.
>
>In the meantime, thank you Dick for a film that we will order today 
from 
>Netflix.
>
>Thanks,
>John Greer
>
>